I have an insulated garage that I want to heat, but just above freezing. All the heaters I have will keep the temperature at 14C (57F) or higher, which I don't want. I just want it slightly above 0C (32F) to avoid the objects in the garage from freezing.
Does anyone know of such a heater? I can't seem to find one.
Thanks!
Any heater can do that. You need a low working thermostat to control it. Hard to find, but I've seen some that go down to 45. I've never seen lower but that does not mean they don't exist.
That's easy...
Put a refrigerator in the garage and leave it open. The interior temperature of a fridge should be around 40 degrees, so an open fridge should keep the garage at 40 degrees year round.
QED :-)
It's a little expensive ($48) but McMaster-Carr has one that you can plug any heater up to 1500 watts into. Go to
A bigger issue might be the capability of the heater to maintain the temperature. Unless the garage is *really* well-insulated, and free of significant air leaks (most garage doors leak like a sieve), the heater may have a hard time keeping up when the weather gets really cold. Depending of course on how cold it gets in your area!
Eric Law
How about a Thermo-Cube?
Nick
-jeepers
to get you started, here's a thermostat Grainger Item # 2E552 search:
Hook ANY heater to a timer?
Steve
If it's an electric heater, make sure the timer can handle such a load. If it's a gas heater, use a setback thermostat?
hook any electric heater to a cal stat thermostat, use a relay if necessary for higher current
Look at electric baseboard heaters. These are normally supplied from
240 V, so you can get several kW of heat from ordinary 14 ga wiring.Most makes of baseboard heaters seem to have auxiliary thermostats that you can install inside the wiring box at one end of the baseboard unit, with the temperature-setting knob sticking out through some kind of knockout. If you look closely, you'll probably find that there are two different models of this thermostat offered. One model has an "off" position, allowing you to turn off the heater entirely. The other model does not have an "off" position, and it's deliberately calibrated so that if you set it to the minimum temperature, it will come on about 4 degrees C (about 39 degrees F). That's what you want.
Dave
A heater on a timer can't maintain a given temperature unless the outside temp is constant and you know the heat loss rate of the garage. If it's 40 one day and -5 the next, how would a timer help maintain a 33 degree temp?
RickH wrote: ...
I posted a link to one at Grainger yesterday in response to haller's posting.
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I've been looking for a 40F degree thermostat for 10 years now, let me know if you find one. I have a boiler that heats the garage slab and the basement slab, and like you I want to keep the garage just above freezing, currently I have to keep it 55F.
The other poster's suggestion of taking a good look at a few makes of line-voltage thermostats for electric heat is a good one.
Over thirty years ago, we found that some thermostats start at around 50F with an offswitch, and others don't have an offswitch, and start around 36F.
We wanted the 36F ones to keep a cottage just above freezing.
If you have some way to calibrate it, it may be possible to tilt one of the mercury switch thermostats enough to lower its operating point adequately. It may be possible to alter the internal spring mount to accomplish the same thing.
Some RV thermostats have no OFF position but I so not know what the minimum setting is.
Don Young
In reading some of the questions that get sent to the Home Repair section of our local newspaper, I think I recall something about issues with condensation if the temperature is kept below some magic number (50?).
You know..."I'm going to Florida for 3 months. What's the lowest I can set my thermostat to?"
I don't recall that the answers started with a "3". I'm sure it was much higher - and it wasn't related to the minimum allowed by the thermostat. It was related to actual environmental factors.
Can anybody concur with what I think I remember?
Would depend on the structure and ambient conditions of the location more than just the temperature as to what would/wouldn't be a problem. Here (SW KS) there's no problem from a condensation standpoint in a totally unheated shop area. In a humid area, not so much.
Don't believe there's a single right answer (in fact I'm sure there's not) for all situations, but can see something like 50F being ok as a generic answer that would cover most situations that a generic column of the sort would respond with. That's not the same thing as what any individual shop could use a safe minimum by any stretch.
The writers of the questions and the authors of the answers are a little more specific regarding location - Western NY - where temps and humidity can vary greatly due to lake effects.
IIRC 50 seemed to be the recommended number - perhaps a generic number, albeit for a different reason than you suggest. In other words, not generic so as to cover a national audience, but generic enough to cover the wide swings of weather conditions near the lakes.
In any case, the OP might want to do a little research and determine if "just above freezing" is the correct temperature for his location.
Thanks!
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